Edelbrock 1405 carb running rich

[iamtherealJayy]

Also when taking off on slight incline or level ground the truck shutters taking off, similar to what I’ve heard semi drivers say when they’re pulling heavy loads. If I give it more throttle it does fine but at that point I’m really slipping the clutch. It’s only from a complete stop taking off. I try to stay around 1200rpms taking off but I usually get up to 1700/1800 before the truck is really moving. I need to adjust the clutch pedal to be farther down I believe. Although sometimes I can’t pull it out of reverse and I have to think for a second and then pull it out of gear. My personal preference is the clutch grabbing soon, if not right as you, after letting off pedal. I adjusted the clutch in the “z bar?” Linkage I believe it’s called? But I reverted my changes due to I overdid it and I could hardly drive the truck. An 87 with 3.42 and hydraulic clutch is way different than a 78 with mechanical clutch and who knows what rear end ratio.

 

[SirRobyn0]

This is the first vehicle I’ve really went in depth with I’ve done a little tinkering but it usually got fixed pretty quick, this truck has been fighting me since I bought it lol. I’m thinking the reaosn it stalled when cold is the manual choke, I can never get it just right without making it overly rich and it will start “bubbling” sorta sound after 30 seconds or so of high idle so I try to pull it just enough to restrict air and not raise idle too much. I’d try to drive and get videos of the truck having problems but they’re so intermittent and you can’t hear or feel what I’m feeling. I’ve also got a slight vibration at cruising speeds(mainly 45+) that’s only there with no throttle or barely cracking the throttle. It goes away as soon as you get into the throttle. And the throttle isn’t very smooth input wise, it moves smoothly but if you let completely off the pedal you can feel the truck jerk and slow down like it’s got drag brakes or something and when you get on the throttle it throws you back (not aggressive but you can obviously tell when I’m on or off the pedal) and yes I love my crocs, it’s too hot to wear pants and boots so crocs are my work shoes lol. Poured little over 19 yards of concrete this morning. Also your assumption of younger fellow is correct, I’m 19, 20 at the end of august. I’m going tomorrow afternoon to buy 2 small block 305’s from someone for $200. Both mostly complete, but ones tune port injection. My plans are just to disassemble and atleast regasket one just for the experience. $200 I feel like I could completely ruin the engines and give them away or part them out and not feel too bad.

I wasn't trying to be critical about you so I hope that you did not take it that way. At you age I was not yet a mechanic. I got a job as a tire mounted when I was 20 nearing 21, because I'd realized collage wasn't going to happen and it paid better than McDonalds. I did 90% of my own work at 19 - 20 because I could not afford to take my rigs to a shop. Ya, I have a medical issue with my feet and can no longer wear work boot or shoes like at the shop I manage I'm suppose to wear OSHA approved foot wear, I can only manage about 30 minutes before I'm in massive amounts of pain. I wear crocs a lot even in the winter and in the rain, but I've got these kind cloth "sandals" they are more like a croc's with a pad on the bottom and holes but just on the side. Super comfortable for all day. I'm just saying.

That take off thing could be a warped flywheel or pressure plate on the clutch, does it feel like the engine is missing or is it more like a vibration? The drag when you take your foot of the gas is probably normal if the truck has a lower rear end gearing as we suspect.

you're probably going to have to experiment to solve some of the runability issues, or wait until they become more severe.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

The taking off issue doesn’t bother me except I’ve stalled the truck twice taking off now.. the truck will idle and drive around in first all day, in low you can dump the clutch and it will just go. But taking off across an intersection unless I really rev it up as I’m going across it doesn’t like it. I can possibly get a video of taking off in first and see if I can purposely make it do it.

 

[SirRobyn0]

The taking off issue doesn’t bother me except I’ve stalled the truck twice taking off now.. the truck will idle and drive around in first all day, in low you can dump the clutch and it will just go. But taking off across an intersection unless I really rev it up as I’m going across it doesn’t like it. I can possibly get a video of taking off in first and see if I can purposely make it do it.

If you would like to do that, I'd be happy to watch the video and tell you what I think.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

I did not get around to making a video but the truck in low or in reverse in gravel I can push on the brakes and pretty much stop the truck but it still spins, but in first gear taking off from a complete stop I can rev up to 1500 as I’m taking off and it still makes the rpms drop way down like it’s straining to barely limp across. I can put it in low and take off no problem but then I have to instantly shift to first, plus low not being synchro it grinds a little going into gear.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

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@SirRobyn0 heres three clips of taking off, in the beginning of first clip I took off in low since it was first start after a couple hours and unless I really revved up it wouldn’t have went up the driveway. Then once at somewhat flat ground I took off in first, I started higher in rpms and it shutters and pulls the rpms way down so you have to keep giving more and more throttle to get it to take off. Low and reverse don’t have the problem at all you can pretty much dump the clutch in either and it goes but first up any kind of incline doesn’t go well. Yes I can drive a manual I have been daily driving the 87 for two years now lol.

 

[SirRobyn0]

I watched the video and that is definitely engine related. To me it sounds bad at idle and just after idle. Not being there it is hard to tell if really is as bad as I think it is, or if the sound of the exhaust leak is making it sound worse than it is.

I think you should pull all the plugs out and see what they look like. If you did that recently then never mind on that and just tell me if they looked excessively black or white.

Next I think I'd be looking at that carb. The more we talk the more I think you have issues in fuel delivery. possible carburetor, possible excessive fuel pressure. Do you have anyway to check fuel pressure?

 

[iamtherealJayy]

The truck off idle runs out fine other than occasional hiccups but idle and coming from idle are my biggest problems. The truck misfires occasionally at idle(vacuum leak somewhere I suppose since when it does it the vacuum is only 14/15 instead of usual 18-20) and yes the exhaust leak fix has blown apart again I suppose because it sounds terrible again. I can pull plugs tomorrow since I haven’t done that since the last time I couldn’t even get the truck to start, black rich white lean? I do not have a regulator or a fuel pressure gauge but I have set the float heights accordingly and I believe the needle and seat are holding fine.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

Someone I was talking to on facebook suggested my carb base gasket, and since I’ve got a spacer and I’ve had the carb off more than once, I decided to snug the bolts. They moved probably a half to three quarters of a turn each with a little pressure using a 13mm wrench. I also remembered the throttle cable bracket is from a quadrajet so only one bolt is holding it on and I’d noticed the throttle cable had pulled it forward towards the linkage so I pulled it straight and after snugging the bolt it didn’t move. We will see tomorrow morning if that helped anything.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Someone I was talking to on facebook suggested my carb base gasket, and since I’ve got a spacer and I’ve had the carb off more than once, I decided to snug the bolts. They moved probably a half to three quarters of a turn each with a little pressure using a 13mm wrench. I also remembered the throttle cable bracket is from a quadrajet so only one bolt is holding it on and I’d noticed the throttle cable had pulled it forward towards the linkage so I pulled it straight and after snugging the bolt it didn’t move. We will see tomorrow morning if that helped anything.

That's something noteworthy to keep in mind in general. More modern vehicles most everything does not require retorqueing where as with the old SBC, lots of stuff does. Gaskets compress and need a retorque. It's kind of a crapp shoot if that bit of tightening will make a difference but it might!

 

[iamtherealJayy]

Well it hasn’t helped startup much I’m still having a problem getting it to start. It fires up first crank but if I let it stall it has a problem starting back. So this being first start of day I gave three pumps it fired right up I gave it a little throttle and pulled the choke a little and let off the throttle. It sputtered and stalled and took a good three or four times of cranking and waiting to get it to start back up

 

[SirRobyn0]

Well it hasn’t helped startup much I’m still having a problem getting it to start. It fires up first crank but if I let it stall it has a problem starting back. So this being first start of day I gave three pumps it fired right up I gave it a little throttle and pulled the choke a little and let off the throttle. It sputtered and stalled and took a good three or four times of cranking and waiting to get it to start back up

So about the cold start thing. One thing is it's got a manual choke so your skill with that will obviously affect cold start. In an ideal world a cold start with a manual choke should look like this. One pump of gas, pull choke all the way out, crank engine as soon as it fires push the choke part way in until you get a smooth idle. If trying that method a few times does not work then we need to look for a mechanical issue.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

That’s what I used to do to start it, although I pulled it while the throttle was pressed so it was easier to pull and yes it fired and idles but idled terrible because it’s 100° and full choke is too much and the choke doesn’t move easy at the high idle area part of the travel. So I always ended up pushing it too far back in then it sputters and if you try to instantly crank it back up you can crank until the battery is dead I guess I don’t know I usually crank for a second wait a few seconds give it another pump and it fires right up but I have to feather the throttle for a second and get the choke just right. I’d like to swap to an electric or vacuum choke of some sort so I can just give it a pump of throttle and fire up during this weather. I know it won’t be that easy when it’s cold but the manual choke was easier when it was colder. My honest opinion is it’s too hot for any choke at all right now but without it the teuck won’t idle without a little throttle input for a minute. I can easily give two or three pump no choke and it fires almost instantly but it may or may not keep idling. I know most mornings with no choke at all the teuck may stall as soon as I pull it out of gear at a stop sign. I’ve had it stall twice so far that I can think of, it fired right back up with no pumps of throttle or one pump but I had to pull the choke a little bit. And if I forget to push the choke back in after I’m moving you can feel the teuck just doesn’t want to go. I can push it in and literally feel the truck take off lol

 

[SirRobyn0]

That’s what I used to do to start it, although I pulled it while the throttle was pressed so it was easier to pull and yes it fired and idles but idled terrible because it’s 100° and full choke is too much and the choke doesn’t move easy at the high idle area part of the travel. So I always ended up pushing it too far back in then it sputters and if you try to instantly crank it back up you can crank until the battery is dead I guess I don’t know I usually crank for a second wait a few seconds give it another pump and it fires right up but I have to feather the throttle for a second and get the choke just right. I’d like to swap to an electric or vacuum choke of some sort so I can just give it a pump of throttle and fire up during this weather. I know it won’t be that easy when it’s cold but the manual choke was easier when it was colder. My honest opinion is it’s too hot for any choke at all right now but without it the teuck won’t idle without a little throttle input for a minute. I can easily give two or three pump no choke and it fires almost instantly but it may or may not keep idling. I know most mornings with no choke at all the teuck may stall as soon as I pull it out of gear at a stop sign. I’ve had it stall twice so far that I can think of, it fired right back up with no pumps of throttle or one pump but I had to pull the choke a little bit. And if I forget to push the choke back in after I’m moving you can feel the teuck just doesn’t want to go. I can push it in and literally feel the truck take off lol

Understood. Did not realize the heat you have going on.

I'd say if your keeping the manual choke getting the cable to work more freely would help ya out.

Going to an electric choke if tuned correctly it should start well below freezing and at 100F without any drama. My truck for example will start with one pump of gas when it's in the single digits (which is rare for us) and in the upper 90's, high idle is only about 900RPM, unless I let it idle a real long time it never needs to be kicked down and it never stalls. The trick is to set how much it opens when it's about 60F out or so. So the colder it gets from there the longer the electric choke keeps the choke shut and warmer it gets the less, somewhere around 80F it will stop closing the choke all the way, so when it's 100F you might only get 1/2 choke enough to get a little fast idle, but not so much that it loads up.

Years ago in the late 90's I had 20 or so year old Civic with a manual choke, and I'd forget to push it in fairly frequently. The car would be kind enough to remind me to push it in with a earth shattering backfire.

 

[iamtherealJayy]

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Here’s a cold start of the truck this morning I press gas once and then pulled choke and after it fired I tried to push it back in, Hugh idle is usually 1100-1200 but it only got up to 800ish in the video I think. Usually I pull the choke after I got it started though. Any ideas how to get it to move easier? Lower the high idle screw?